HOW TO: Do Edit-While-Ingest with Avid Media Composer

It is possible to do edit-while-ingest (sometimes called FrameChase edit, or support for growing files) with Media Composer. This works only with MXF destinations using the XDCAM codec. Also you should note that Media Composer requires you to manually "refresh" the file to see the new frames. It won't grow automatically with this method.

Requirements

Setup Media Composer

Install the Nablet XAVC XDCAM AMA Plugin

On the computer that runs Media Composer (MovieRecorder does not need that plugin):

Go to: http://www.avid.com/plugins/ama-plugins

Open the Sony XDCAM/HDCAM plugins section, and download the AMA plugin from Nablet's website. It is now Nablet that develops the AMA plugin for Sony XDCAM.

Follow the instructions provided in the pdf. And make sure that you have uninstalled the legacy Sony AMA plugin if you had it installed as the nablet plug-ins and the legacy Sony plug-ins cannot coexist on the same system.

You can check which AMA plugins are installed if you go to the menu "Tools > Console", and in the console window you type "Ama_ListPlugins ", you should see a result such as this one:

Enable the legacy Link Dialog in Media Composer

In Media Composer 8.6 or later, there is a new way to link to file using the "Source Browser". But it has issues with linking growing files. It may react extremely slow or even hangup on the attempt to link a growing file.

You thus need to use the legacy "Link to Media..." menu. If you are using Media Composer 8.6 or later, here is what you should do:

Go to the menu "Tools > Console"

In the Console Window, type "ToggleHideLinkMenus"

Hit Enter (Carriage Return). You should see this confirmation window:

Restart Media Composer

After restart the menu "File > Input > Link to Media..." should now be available

Setup MovieRecorder

In MovieRecorder, create an MXF destination if you don't already have one. For that, click on the + icon at the bottom left of the sources pane, and click on "MXF":

Then make sure that the destination uses one of the XDCAM recommended presets, and that the muxing mode selected is set to "XDCAM":

Make also sure to record to a location that is available for your Media Composer editing station.

That's it... Now you can just hit record.

Link and Refresh growing files in Media Composer

Link to growing media

While the recording is still taking place, you can then link to the file. For that, go to the menu "File > Input > Link to Media...". In the window that pops up, click on the Files of Type menu and select "Sony XAVC & XDCAM (*.mxf)":

Once this is chose, the files of type should show this:

Note that it won't work if you use the auto or the built-in MXF AMA plugin from Avid, so always make sure that this is properly set.

Then click on the file you want to Link and click on "Open". The file should now be linked in your Bin. Note that "Growing" files have a specific icon:

Refresh Growing Media

As said initially files will not "grow" automatically in Media Composer. You will need to manually refresh the files for the new content to be shown. For that, select the bin where the growing media are located and then go to the menu "Clip� > Refresh In-progress Linked Clips"

That's it, your growing media should now show the new content.

Note that if the recording was finished, the clip will now have the regular "linked clip" icon: